"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec," the current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, evokes at first glance, the thrill of recognition - a thrill similar, perhaps, to that of meeting a familiar celebrity in an elevator. For among Lautrec's works are images that are popular and frequently reproduced, and have become indelibly etched into the contemporary perception of Parisian art at the end of the century.

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) produced paintings, prints and posters during the Post Impressionist period in France. His style, early on, became recognizable through its sharp contours; wide color areas, and powerful, spontaneous line. His subject matter addressed the figure, either human or animal. And Lautrec, as much at home in the brothel as at the fashionable horse races, made pictures of subjects from all walks of Parisian life.

Born into a family of old nobility, which according to essayist Julia Frey, intermarried to prevent the family fortune from being dispersed, Lautrec suffered from a type of dwarfism called pyknodysostosis. His physical affliction did not appear, however, until he was 10. Raised by a dominate mother and an unconcerned and often absent father, Lautrec was hospitalized at 10 for treatment of his legs which were noticeably short. At 13, he suffered one fracture after another, after which all long-bone growth stopped. For the rest of his life, he was dwarfed and crippled. As an adult, Lautrec was only 4 feet 11 with a normal sized head and torso, but short legs and arms, large hands and clubby fingers.

During his years of therapy, he developed a love for drawing, frequently making lively sketches of animals on the country estate. As a young adult physically unfit for other professions, Lautrec studied art in Paris, and perfected the academics of anatomy and classical painting techniques. Unlike many of his contemporaries (Van Gogh included) in the Parisian art scene, who painted and struggled for an exhibition and recognition, Lautrec was a success almost immediately. In 1889, he exhibited early works in the "Salon de Incoherents." And although his newspaper, book and sheet music illustrations were becoming known, it was his first poster for the Moulin Rouge (1891) that catapulted him into overnight success.

Lautrec's painting master, Fernand Cormon, suggested that the art students go out of the studio and sketch models in their own environment. The young artists went nightly to the bars and cafes to sketch. It was this experience that influenced Lautrec's interest in dance hall girls, the women of "low character" who listed their professions as "actresses" and the gaiety of Parisian nightlife. It was also this early experience that is thought to have begun Lautrec's dependence on alcohol.

In the exhibit are Lautrec's own colorful dance-hall girls, the glitter and decadence of an affluent city at the end of the century, and his unmistakable style that has endured for nearly a century. The main art form in the show is the lithograph. But Lautrec preferred to make a lithographic image of a subject he had already explored in painting. As such, many of the works in the show are a progression of one subject in preliminary sketch, to painting study, to first color litho, and finally to the finished image in print.

Often, the images appear first in single line, then in color. "Englishman at the Moulin Rouge," for instance, is shown in many forms: oil and gouache on cardboard and proofs of the lithograph in the first state with single color, successively to lithograph in the second state with final color. The subject, a dandy male fig- ure in a high-silk hat, courts a glamorous red- haired woman. In the painting, Lautrec lights the subjects from beneath, reproducing the dance-hall glow of artificial light. He also allows the background of the cardboard, rather brown, to show through acting as part of the texture of the work.

"Elsa, Called the Viennese" also shows the image in progression from a black and white to the final stages of color. "Mademoiselle Eglantine's Company" (1896) features four robust dancers doing the cancan, and also begins with a charcoal and gouache linear painting on cardboard. In this original painting study, Lautrec focuses on the simple outline of the frilly skirts, and large hats, and the gesture of the dance. In the final lithograph, he colors in the stockings and retains the outline, but the remainder of the image is left in broad color areas.

In addition to popular cabaret performers and actresses, examples of Lautrec's interest in horse racing appear in the show. "Jockey," an 1899 lithograph, shows the horse and rider from an unusual perspective, the rear. But Lautrec captures the active gesture of the race. Another beautiful equestrian work is "Napoleon" (1895) which features three mounted soldiers. Interestingly, Napoleon appears to be bringing up the rear.